LocateMotion was founded with the aim of keeping loved ones safe and facilitating aging in place. The start-up reaches another milestone as it gets selected by ENCQOR, a Government of Canada 5G Program, for implementation and testing of 5G use-cases for its unique IoT and AI SaaS solution for the senior homecare space.
The senior population in North America is growing at a very fast pace. As per the US Census Bureau, by 2030, every fifth American will be a senior citizen. Similarly, StatsCanada estimates that every fifth Canadian will be a senior citizen even earlier, by 2024.
“As the baby boomer population ages, there is an urgent need to reevaluate the current approach towards senior care, to help relieve the strain on healthcare facilities and respond to increasing demand-supply gaps. Especially because the number of personal support workers or caregivers is not increasing fast enough to keep up with the senior population growth.”
This is where technology comes in. It can play a vital role in mitigating caregiver shortages and providing a 24/7 safety net for seniors. This is why LocateMotion has created an assisted ambient living (AAL) solution that facilitates aging in place.
The solution analyzes the information provided by wearables, smartphones, WIFI, and geo-data, to provide a comprehensive talk-track-care solution for seniors.
Its built-in algorithm tracks health and activity trends as well as patterns in the movement to reduce chances of emergencies such as wandering and falls while automating routine daily support tasks such as medication reminders. Determining the severity of each care incident, it facilitates automated or human ‘smart-responses’, improving operational efficiencies for homecare providers while providing peace of mind to seniors and their caregivers.
“LocateMotion aims to make this process more seamless in the future with 5G by facilitating real-time monitoring. Ultimately a scalable, customizable solution will take to the unique needs of every Open APIs, device & network agnostic platform, dedicated app, and remote monitoring devices will enable senior homecare providers to further improve care while driving down costs.”
Hence, with the support of ENCQOR partners including Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), MaRS Discovery District, Ericsson, and Ciena, the company is working on the next 5G-ready version of its solution.
In addition to ENCQOR, LocateMotion has already received support from other leading institutions including the SmartStart Seed Fund program funded by Govt of Ontario via OCE, NSERC, IRAP (Industrial Research program) and AGE-WELL in collaboration with Ryerson University and the Govt of Canada to address this challenge.
LocateMotion is currently testing the solution and is in discussions for pilot programs in Canada and the US. The solution will be available for commercial use in Q4 2019.